Today is the last day of the trip. I booked my flight in December during a Frontier Airlines sale and there were three options for a direct flight. The first was too early to work with a cruise, the second was a decent time but significantly more than the third option, and the third option was a late 9:15pm flight. The late flight gave us one more day in Florida and we decided to spend the day at Disney Springs.
Disembarkation and immigration was super easy. We basically walked off the ship to customs. The night before we were given detailed instructions for disembarkation on our television. Our room attendant turned the TV on and the announcement was playing in a loop. We had a choice to make. We could either tag our larger bags with a Tinker Bell tag and place outside at 10pm for the porters to pick-up and transfer to the terminal or we could keep our bags overnight and carry them off the ship ourselves. As nice as it would have been to have someone else move our bags, we decided to carry them ourselves. Carrying themselves also meant we could walk off the ship whenever we wanted versus having to wait for our character to be called.
Our assigned breakfast time was at 7:20am at Animator’s Palate which was way earlier than I would have chosen for myself. We ate a quick breakfast and then walked off the ship with our luggage. The process was super simple and we were back to reality within 10 minutes.
We rented a car for the day and the process of getting the car was incredibly easy. We waited for the shuttle right outside the cruise terminal and it came almost immediately. We stopped briefly at another terminal and then the driver took us to Alamo. This particular location was only for people coming off cruises which meant it was practically empty. We walked straight to the counter and within a couple minutes we had keys in hand for a Toyota Carrolla.
We drove to Disney Springs which was about an hour away. Our first stop here was to Gideon’s Bakehouse which already had a line at 10am. They are known for their half-pound cookies. We waited a decent amount of time in line so I decided to order a slice of cake and a cookie to try them out. I loved the decor of the inside! It had a steampunk/Lemony Snicket/Tim Burton kind of vibe. The line moved very quickly once inside and there was a lot to look at too. I wasn’t really that hungry, but we didn’t want to wait too long to come because the line quickly turns into a 4-5 hour line later in the day. I ate my slice of cake slowly throughout the day. It was very good. I packed the cookie for later.
We spent the day leisurely moving in and out of shops. Many of the stores here are Disney related, but there are also quite a few non-Disney stores too. I walked away with some new sundresses at the end of the day.
Overall it’s been an amazing trip. There were magical moments all around the ship and I’m looking forward to the day I bring my family onboard. If you have any questions about Disney or Disney Cruise Line, please let me know!
Adventures by Amaris Blog 